Page 65 of Furever Loyal
I should have stopped and gotten some.
But Kincaid had been explicit in his orders that she go right back to the basement. Normally, Haley detested when someone tried to order her around, but in this situation, she’d been forced to agree with him. This was the smart choice, the one that would keep her safe and out of harm’s way.
She didn’t like it, and she liked the way he was going to resolve this situation even less, but this wasn’t her world, and she needed to remember that. They did their business differently than anything she was used to. Violence wasn’t a last resort with them, it was the first choice.
They’re more like their wild cousins than they like to admit.
He was going to be fine, she told herself again. And again. Kincaid had taken down Krawll once already in combat, and she had every confidence he would do it again. He would defeat the man, prove that he was being framed, and then she could leave this stupid place and go back to her life.
Her normal, boring life. One that had been devoid of a lot of things. It hadn’t been a pleasant revelation, but it was hard to deny it.
“I have no life.” She ground the words out, forcing herself to say them aloud, to admit the truth of them.
All she had was her job. It paid well, and she was wealthy enough that if she didn’t spend recklessly, she’d never need to work another day in her life. Money wasn’t why she’d gotten into the profession in the first place—not this sort of wealth at least. Now it was all she had.
There were no friends. No pets. No activities, hobbies or sports that she was involved with. She did no volunteering. Most of all though, she didn’t have someone to care for. To care for her. To call her out on her lack of socializing.
More than once she’d turned it aside. Even Danielle at work had tried several times to get her to come out, to have a drink or two with the rest of the office, but she’d always declined, either staying late or going home to be by herself. She’d used the reasoning that as the boss, she shouldn’t be socializing with her employees, but with such a small staff, did it really matter?
Maybe I should have taken Danielle up on that offer. She always seemed keen to be friends.
Of course, she might not have her job for much longer. If things didn’t work out, a reality she had to be prepared for, Haley would find herself, and her team, unemployed. They were all good at what they did, and she knew they would get other opportunities elsewhere. But they wereherteam and she didn’t want to give them up.
Just like she didn’t want to give Kincaid up. For the first time in longer than she cared to admit, even to herself, something in her life mattered to her more than her career. She made her way over to the couch and all but dropped into it as the bombshell exploded in front of her.
She cared for Kincaid. Not just lusted after his body, or his skills in bed, both of which were appreciated, but for the man he was. Agoodman. An honorable man. Perhaps a bit too prone to outbreaks of violence, but everyone has their faults. As long as he never turned it on her—where she knew instinctively, somehow, that hewasn’tthat type of man—she would overlook it.
“After all, it’s not like I don’t have a few faults of my own,” she admitted to the room.
All of this was too much for her to handle on her own. Haley found herself wishing she could reach out to someone to talk it over, to confess, to get their opinion on it all. She couldn’t tell them about the shifters, and the magic, and the vampires, and the dragons.Because who in their right mind would actually believe all that…
Still…
Glancing over at the landline, a nearly ancient artifact by today’s technology, she worked her mouth back and forth. Who would she call? Who would pick up and be willing to talk to her, to listen?
The only people she really had talked to in the past six months were the people at her office.
Danielle would listen. She’d be happy you reached out to her. I think she worries about you.
Nervously, she shuffled to the end of the couch and picked up the receiver, listening to the dialtone at the other end.
“Grow a spine. At a minimum you should let them know you’re okay so they don’t file a missing persons report or something.”
Her fingers were already moving across the pad, dialing the number to the office. She was doing this. She was really doing it.
“House Accounting, Graham speaking,” a nasally male voice said.
“Hi Graham, it’s Haley. Is Danielle there?”
“Haley! It’s good to hear from you. Yes, she’s here, let me tell her.”
The phone beeped as he put her on hold, and Haley’s hand began to shake. What would she say? How should she bring it up? Just launch into it, or start small and work her way up?
She stood up, the corded phone—how old is this damn thing?!—yanking the base off the table until it hung several inches above it. Haley sat back down abruptly, stuck to the couch, wishing her cell phone was with her, and not somewhere back in Ursidae Manor out of reach.
Just then, Danielle picked up.
“Haley? Haley, are you okay?”
